`Abd al-`Aziz ibn `Abd Allah Ibn Baz, the late (d. 1999) nescient mufti of
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, government scholar par excellence, and major
innovator whose influence on spreading deviant beliefs is incalculable.
The present crippling of Islam and Muslims took place under his leadership
and as a direct result of his policies as listed by Sayyid Yusuf al-Rifa`i
in his Nasiha li Ikhwanina `Ulama' Najd ("Advice to Our Brothers the
Scholars of Najd" ):

As former overall president of the Directorships of Scholarly Research,
Iftâ', Da`wa, and Irshâd, Ibn Baz is on record for issuing a fatwa
declaring as unIslamic the Palestinian people's uprising against the
Jewish State of Israel, whereas he never condemned the practices, in his
own country, of gambling, horse-racing, and usury. In the late sixties he
declared any and all forms of cooperation with the kuffâr prohibited and
cast a judgment of apostasy on `Abd al-Nasir for employing a civilian
force of a few hundred Russian engineers to build the Aswan dam. In the
early nineties he again made it halâl for kufr forces to come, under their
flag and sovereignty, in hundred of thousands, to occupy Muslim lands and
destroy Iraq, because of "necessity." There was also no problem for them
to stay after the "necessity" was over.

In his infamous al-Adilla al-Naqliyya wa al-Hissiyya `ala Jarayan
al-Shamsi wa Sukuni al-Ard ("The Transmitted and Sensory Proofs of the
Rotation of the Sun and Stillness of the Earth"), he asserted that the
earth was flat and disk-like and that the sun revolved around it.

Like all the anthropomorphists of his School, Ibn Baz added modifiers to
the Divine Attributes, asserting, for example, that Allah Most High and
Exalted "istawâ `alâ al-`arsh haqqan" - variously translated as "He
established Himself over the Throne in person" or "actually" or
"literally" - haqqan being an innovated addition which violates the
practice of the true Salaf consisting in asserting the Divine Attributes
bilâ kayf - without "how" - any modifier being by definition a modality.
What is worse, of course, is that such an innovated addition is an avenue
to anthropomorphism.

In his footnote to article 38 of Imam al-Tahawi's `Aqida ("He is beyond
having limits placed on Him, or being restricted, or having parts or
limbs. Nor is He contained by the six directions as all created entities
are"), he asserts, "Allah is beyond limits that we know but has limits He
knows." This is, like haqqan, a true innovation of misguidance and
innovated phrase as stated by al-Dhahabi and others, utterly unsupported
by the Qur'an, the Sunna, and the Consensus, and violating the practice of
the true Salaf who refrained from indulging in speculations of modality
whenever they mentioned the Divine Attributes. (This footnote also appears
in Shu`ayb Hassan's translation in English, which also contains other
major doctrinal errors.)

Ibn Baz's Najdi friends commit the same ugly innovation: `Abd Allah
al-Hashidi in his edition of al-Bayhaqi's al-Asma' wa al-Sifat - written
in rebuttal of al-Kawthari's landmark edition - states: "As for us we
affirm a form (sûra) for Allah unlike forms," while al-Albani in his Sharh
approvingly quotes Muhammad ibn Mani`'s remonstration of Imam al-Tahawi
for this particular article and his pretense that the Imam, perhaps, did
not write it in the first place: "The Imam and author was in no need at
all for these invented, wrongly suggestive words, and if someone were to
say that they are interpolated and not his own words, I would not think it
improbable, so as to keep a good opinion of him"!1

Ibn Baz also suggests corporal limbs for Allah Most High and Exalted in
his statement in Taliqat Hamma `ala ma Katabahu al-Shaykh Muhammad `Ali
al-Sabuni fi Sifat Allah ("Important Comments on What Shaykh al-Sabuni
Wrote Concerning the Divine Attributes") that "To declare Allah
transcendent beyond possessing body (al-jism), pupils (al-hadaqa),
auditory meatus (al-simâkh), tongue (al-lisân), and larynx (al-hanjara) is
not the position of Ahl al-Sunna but rather that of the scholars of
condemned kalâm and their contrivance."2

By his phrase "the scholars of condemned kalâm" he disparages Ibn Khafif,
Ibn `Abd al-Salam, Ibn al-Juwayni, Ibn Hibban, Ibn `Arabi, al-Ghazzali,
al-Razi, al-Qadi `Iyad, al-Maziri, al-Nawawi, al-Pazdawi, al-Bayhaqi,
al-Qurtubi, al-Khatib, Ibn al-Jawzi, Ibn Daqiq al-`Id, Ibn Hajar
al-`Asqalani, Shah Wali Allah, the entire Ash`ari and Maturidi Schools
and, lately, al-Sabuni, all of whom asserted transcendence in similar
terms. As Ibn Hajar stated in Fath al-Bari: "The elite of the mutakallimûn
said: `He knows not Allah, who attributes to Him resemblance to His
creation, or attributes a hand to Him, or a son."3 Contrary to this the
doctrine of the Literalists consists in attributing an actual hand to the
Creator. But Ibn Baz in his notes on Fath al-Bari charges al-Qadi `Iyad
and Ibn Hajar with abandoning the way of Ahl al-Sunna for stating that the
Hand of Allah does not pertain to a bodily appendage.4 This is similar to
the pretext of the anthropomorphist who said: "We expelled Ibn Hibban from
Sijistan for his lack of Religion: he used to say that Allah is not
limited!"5

Ibn Baz explicitly attributes a geographical direction to Allah Most High
and Exalted, and affirms that such was the belief of "the Companions and
those who followed them in excellence - they assert a direction for Allah,
and that is the direction of height, believing that the Exalted is above
the Throne."6

In his tract translated into English as Authentic Islamic Aqeedah and What
Opposes It (p. 16), Ibn Baz calls those who visit the graves of saints
"unbelievers" who commit what he calls kufr al-rubûbiyya. This fatwa
compounds three innovations: (1) the dreadful sin of indiscriminately
declaring millions of Muslims kâfir without the proofs and due process
required by the purified Shari`a: (2) the blind, wholesale dismissal of
the numerous orders of the Prophet in the
authentic Sunna to visit the graves for they are reminders of the
hereafter; (3) the branding of Muslims with an innovated classification of
disbelief he calls kufr al-rubûbiyya.

The weakness of Ibn Baz's doctrinal positions can be inferred from the
very title of one of his tracts purportedly designed to champion true
doctrine: Iqamat al-Barahin `ala Hukmi man Istaghatha bi Ghayr Allah
("Establishing the Patent Proofs for the Judgment on Whoever Calls for
Help Other than Allah"). For the licitness of istighâtha or calling for
help of a creature QUALIFIED TO HELP, is patently established in the
Qur'an and Sunna, as shown by the verse {And his countryman sought his
help (istaghâthahu) against his enemy} (28:15) and al-Bukhari's narration
of the Prophet from Ibn `Umar - Allah be
well-pleased with him - already quoted: "Truly the sun shall draw so near
on the Day of Resurrection that sweat shall reach to the mid-ear,
whereupon they shall ask (istaghâthû) help from Adam - upon him peace -,
then from Musa - upon him peace -, then from Muhammad - Allah bless and
greet him - who will intercede." Furthermore, Ibn Baz directly contradicts
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's words in Majmu`at al-Tawhid (p. 232): "We do
not deny nor reject the invocation of help from the creature [as distinct
>from the Creator] INSOFAR AS THE CREATED CAN HELP, as Allah Most High said
in the story of Musa - upon him peace -: {And his countryman sought his
help against his enemy}."

An inveterate deprecator of the Prophet and
principal enemy of the Sufis, in one of his fatwas he asserts, "Among
other things, the Messenger of Allah , after
his death, never appears in a vision to a wakeful person. He of the
ignorant Sufis who claims that he sees, while vigilant, the vision of the
Prophet , or that that vision attends the
Mawlids or the like, is guilty of the foulest error, and exceedingly
deluded... the dead never rise out of their graves in this world save on
the Day of Judgement."

The above is a claim to know in their entirety: (a) the unseen, (b) the
wherewithal of the Prophet in Barzakh, and
(c) the states of the servants of Allah Most High; in addition to an
impious reference to the Prophet as "the
dead"! Surely, it is ibn Baz who is dead while the Prophet - Allah bless
and greet him -, as stated by Shaykh Muhammad ibn `Alawi in Manhaj
al-Salaf, "is alive with a complete isthmus-life (hayât barzakhiyya) which
is greater and better and more perfect than worldly life - indeed, higher,
dearer, sweeter, more perfect, and more beneficial than worldly life."

It is also related from one of the great Sufi shaykhs, Shaykh Abu al-Hasan
al-Shadhili - may Allah have mercy upon him - who, unlike Ibn Baz, was
only physically blind, whom the hadith master Ibn al-Mulaqqin mentioned in
his Tabaqat al-Awliya, and concerning whom Ibn Daqiq al-`Id said: "I never
saw anyone more knowledgeable of Allah," that he said: "If I ceased to see
the Prophet for one moment, I would no
longer consider myself a Muslim." His teacher Abu al-`Abbas al-Mursi said
the same. The Ghawth `Abd al-`Aziz al-Dabbagh said something similar, as
reported from him by his student Ahmad ibn al-Mubarak in al-Ibriz.
Assuredly, Shaykh Abd al-Aziz shall have to answer for his calumny of
these Sufis among many others on the Day of Judgment, in addition to
having issued legal judgments and spoken of the Prophet - Allah bless and
greet him - without knowledge.

As for attending Mawlid, "a vision" does not attend or do anything, but
the spirits of the believers who passed away, together with the angels and
the believing jinn, are certainly related to attend the gatherings of the
pious all over the earth. Ibn al-Kharrat in al-`Aqiba, Ibn al-Qayyim in
al-Ruh, al-Qurtubi in al-Tadhkira, Ibn Abi al-Dunya in al-Qubur, al-Suyuti
in Sharh al-Sudur, Ibn Rajab in Ahwal al-Qubur, and others relate from
many of the Salaf - including Imam Malik in al-Muwatta' - that the spirits
of the believers in Barzakh are free to come and go anywhere they please.
This is all the more possible for our Prophet - Allah bless and greet
him - as we celebrate Mawlid specifically to remember him and invoke
blessings upon him.

Ibn Baz passed a fatwa that "It is not permissible to celebrate the
birthday of the Prophet , in fact, it must be
stopped, as it is an innovation in the religion." His sole proof for this
declaring an act illicit and an innovation in Islam is that it did not
take place in the early centuries of Islam, whereas al-Shafi`i and the
Imams and scholars of the principles of jurisprudence defined innovation
in the Religion as "that which was not practiced before AND contravenes
the Qur'an and Sunna." It is noteworthy that the heads of the "Salafi"
movement and those of their offshoots who propagate their views are always
careful, through ignorance and/or duplicity, to omit this second,
indispensable pre-condition in their definition of bid`a: Deobandis,
Tablighis, Tahriris, Muhajiris, Jama`is, Ikhwanis, ICNA, ISNA, IANA, MAYA,
JIMAS, WAMY, QSS, SAS, IIIE, and other Wahhabis. Furthermore, the majority
of the scholars of Ahl al-Sunna - and Allah knows best - concur either
outloud or tacitly on the licit character of the celebration of the Mawlid
provided the usual etiquette of Islam in public gatherings is kept.
Lastly, the Hanbali school in its entirety never declared forbidden the
celebration of the Mawlid and even Ibn Taymiyya stated that one who
celebrates it with sincere intentions will be rewarded!7

Ibn Baz revived the innovation and invalid fatwa of Ibn Taymiyya to the
effect that it is forbidden to travel with the intention of visiting the
Prophet in his notes on Ibn Hajar's Fath
al-Bari, book of Fadl al-Salat fi Makka wal-Madina, where Ibn Hajar
comments on Ibn Taymiyya's prohibition of travel for Ziyara: "Ibn Taymiyya
said: `This kind of trip - traveling to visit the grave of the Prophet -
Allah bless and greet him - is a disobedience, and salât must not be
shortened during it.' This is one of the ugliest matters reported from Ibn
Taymiyya." To which Ibn Baz reacts in a footnote: "It is not ugly, and Ibn
Taymiyya was right." Indeed, Ibn Hajar's teacher, Zayn al-Din al-`Iraqi,
rightly called it in his Tarh al-Tathrib (6:43) "a strange and ugly
saying."

Bin Baz also reduplicates word for word and without the least critical
analysis or original understanding of the evidence the pretense of Ibn
Taymiyya whereby "The hadiths that concern the desirability of visiting
the grave of the Prophet are all weak,
indeed forged." By the grace of Allah Most High this pseudo-bold and
fashionable claim - among "Salafis" - has been laid to its final
resting-ground by Shaykh Mahmud Mamduh's superb documentation work titled
Raf` al-Minara fi Takhrij Ahadith al-Tawassul wa al-Ziyara ("Raising the
Lighthouse: Documentation of the Narrations Pertaining to Using an
Intermediary and Visitation").

Another astonishing deviation of Ibn Baz in his remarks on Fath al-Bari is
his characterizing the visit of the Companion Bilal ibn al-Harth - Allah
be well-pleased with him - to the grave of the Prophet - Allah bless and
greet him - and his tawassul for rain there as "aberrant" (munkar) and "an
avenue to polytheism" (wasîla ilâ al-shirk)."8

One of his innovations in usûl is his public declaration - in the Saudi
periodical al-Majalla - that he does not adhere to the Hanbali Madhhab
"but only to the Qur'an and Sunna," whereas Ibn Taymiyya said himself
asserted in Mukhtasar al-Fatawa al-Misriyya that the truth is not found,
in the whole Shari`a, outside the four Schools. Nor have any two Sunni
Ulema on the face of the earth agreed on the qualification of Ibn Baz as
an absolute Mujtahid capable of extracting his own proofs and School from
the primary evidences of the Law. On the contrary, his fiqh is superficial
compared to his subordinate Ibn `Uthaymin, his natural bent for taqlîd is
evident, his blunders numerous, and his innovations countless.

Among the other innovations of Ibn Baz in doctrine, he tried to rectify
whatever did not please him in Fath al-Bari by the Imam and hadith master
Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani with interpersed remarks that do not qualify as
commentary but as an attempt to substitute Ibn Hajar's Ash`ari Sunni
doctrine with anthropomorphism as the Islamic creed.9

Under his leadership, Ibn Taymiyya's Majmu`a al-Fatawa al-Kubra received
a new edition from which the 10th volume - on tasawwuf - was suppressed.
Similar examples of unreliable editorship and blatant tampering of the
scholarly heritage abound at the hands of Wahhabis:

1- In the book of al-Adhkar by Imam Muhyi al-Din al-Nawawi as published by
Dar al-Huda in al-Riyad in 1409/1989 and edited by `Abd al-Qadir
al-Arna'ut of Damascus, page 295, the chapter-title, "Section on Visiting
the Grave of the Messenger " was substituted
with the title, "Section on Visiting the Mosque of the Messenger of
Allah " together with the suppression of
several lines from the beginning of the section and its end, and the
suppression of al-`Utbi's famous story of intercession which Imam
al-Nawawi had mentioned in full.10 When al-Arna'ut was asked about it, he
replied that the Ryad agents were the ones who had changed and tampered
with the text. A facsimile of his own hand-written statement to that
effect was printed in full in Shaykh Mahmud Mamduh's Raf` al-Minara (p.
72-75).

2- Suppression of al-Sawi's (d. 1241/1825) words on modern-time Kharijis
in his supercommentary on Tafsir al-Jalalayn titled Hashiya `ala Tafsir
al-Jalalayn (v. 58:18-19), "namely, a sect in the Hijaz named Wahhabis"
from all new editions beginning from the Eighties.11

3- Zuhayr al-Shawish's suppression of the word "substitute-saints"
(al-abdâl) from his al-Maktab al-Islami (3rd) edition of Ibn Taymiyya's
`Aqida Wasitiyya in the following passage: "The true adherents of Islam in
its pristine purity are Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a. In their ranks are
found the truthful saints (al-siddîqûn), the martyrs, and the righteous.
Among them are the great men of guidance and illumination, of recorded
integrity and celebrated virtue. And among them are the substitute-saints
(al-abdâl) - the Imams - concerning whose guidance and knowledge the
Muslims are in full accord. These are the Victorious Group..." as found in
the Cairo Salafiyya edition (p. 36) and the Majmu`a al-Rasa'il al-Kubra
(3:159).

4- Suppression of the chapter that concerns the Friends of Allah
(al-awliyâ'), Substitute-Saints (al-abdâl), and the Righteous (al-sâlihîn)
>from Ibn `Abidin's Epistles.12

5- Removal of Abu Hayyan's denunciation of Ibn Taymiyya as an
anthropomorphist from his two Tafsirs, al-Bahr al-Muhit and al-Nahr
al-Madd min al-Bahr (passage on Ayat al-Kursi).

6- Interpolation of the phrase bidhâtihi ("in person") into al-Gilani's
mention of Allah Most High establishing Himself over the Throne as well as
the takfîr of Imam Abu Hanifa in his classic al-Ghunya.

7- Interpolations among the same lines as well as the takfîr of Imam Abu
Hanifa in al-Ash`ari's al-Ibana.

8- Suppressions and additions along anthropomorphist lines in al-Nawawi's
Sharh Sahih Muslim from as early as Ibn al-Subki's time.

9- Anthropomorphist additions to al-Alusi's Ruh al-Ma`ani transmitted by
his "Salafi" son Nu`man as shown by a comparison with its autograph
manuscript.

10- Commissioning Muhammad Muhsin Khan and Muhammad Taqi al-Din al-Hilali
with English translations of the motherbooks of Islam such as the Qur'an,
al-Bukhari's Sahih, al-Zabidi's al-Tajrid al-Sarih, al-Naysaburi's
al-Lu'lu' wa al-Marjan etc. when Khan was only trained as a chest doctor
while the late Moroccan-born Hilali had no more than a poor mastery of the
English language.13 Hence their translations are clumsy, inelegant, filled
with gaps and approximations, and further corrupted by deliberate
manipulations of meaning along doctrinal lines as shown by the following
example in their Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 76, Number 549:
"Narrated Ibn `Abbas: `The Prophet said,
"The people were displayed in front of me and I saw one prophet passing by
with a large group of his followers, and another prophet passing by with
only a small group of people, and another prophet passing by with only ten
(persons), and another prophet passing by with only five (persons), and
another prophet passed by alone. And then I looked and saw a large
multitude of people, so I asked Gibril, "Are these people my followers?'
He said, `No, but look towards the horizon.' I looked and saw a very large
multitude of people. Gibril said. `Those are your followers, and those are
seventy thousand (persons) in front of them who will neither have any
reckoning of their accounts nor will receive any punishment.' I asked,
`Why?' He said, `For they used not to treat themselves with branding
(cauterization) NOR WITH RUQYA (GET ONESELF TREATED BY THE RECITATION OF
SOME VERSES OF THE QUR'AN) and not to see evil omen in things, and they
used to put their trust (only) in their Lord." On hearing that, `Ukasha
bin Mihsan got up and said (to the Prophet), "Invoke Allah to make me one
of them." The Prophet said, "O Allah, make
him one of them." Then another man got up and said (to the Prophet),
"Invoke Allah to make me one of them." The Prophet said, `Ukasha has preceded you."'"

As demonstrated in the text of the Encyclopedia of Islamic Doctrine
(6:137-149) on ta'wîz, there is a Jahili ruqyâ, and there is a Sunni
ruqyâ. The former is made with other than what is allowed in the Religion,
such as amulets, talismans, spells, incantations, charms, magic and the
like: and that is what the Prophet meant in
the above hadith. But the translator Khan mischaracterized it, in his
parenthetical gloss, as the Sunna ruqyâ consisting in using some verses of
the Qur'an or permitted du'â for treatment! Thus he suggests, in his
manipulation, exactly the reverse of what the Prophet - Allah bless and
greet him - said and practiced, and the reverse of what the Companions
said and practiced both in the time of the Prophet - Allah bless and greet
him - and after his time. One well-known probative example of the Sunna
ruqyâ is the use of the Fatiha by one of the Companions to heal a
scorpion-bite - and the Prophet approved of
it - as narrated by al-Bukhari elsewhere in his Sahih.14

11- The 1999 translation of al-Nawawi's Riyad al-Salihin published by
Darussalam publications out of Riyad makes a similar interpolation
distorting the meaning of the words of the Prophet - Allah bless and greet
him -: "They are those who do not make RUQYAH (BLOWING OVER THEMSELVES
AFTER RECITING THE QUR'AN OR SOME PRAYERS AND SUPPLICATIONS THE PROPHET -
Allah bless and greet him - used to say)."15 Observe their equating
something the Prophet used to do with an act
that those who enter Paradise do not do. The same book calls al-Albani
"the leading authority in the science of hadith" (p. 88), declares that
"in case of breach of ablution, the wiping over the socks is sufficient,
and there is no need for washing the feet" (p. 31), that "ours should not
be the belief that the dead do hear and reply [our greeting]" (p. 515),
and that expressing the intention (niyya) verbally before salât "is a
Bid`ah (innovation in religion) because no proof of it is found in
Sharî`ah" (p. 14)!

12- Other manipulations of meaning along anthropomorphist lines and
dilly-dallying can be seen in Khan-Hilali's discrepant, multiple
translations of the meanings of the Qur'an into English. An example of
this confusion is in the footnote to the verse of the Throne (2:255) for
the word kursiyyuhu, translated as "His Throne": "Throne: seat."16 In a
later edition by the same M.M. Khan and his friend M. Taqi al-Din
al-Hilali, the word is left untranslated, giving "His Kursî," with a
footnote stating:

"Kursî: literally a footstool or chair, and sometimes wrongly translated
as Throne[!]. Ibn Taimiyah said: a) To believe in the Kursî. b) To believe
in the `Arsh (Throne) [sic]. It is narrated from Muhammad bin `Abdullâh
and from other religious scholars that the Kursî is in front of the `Arsh
(Throne) and it is at the level of the Feet. (Fatawa Ibn Taimiyah, Vol. 5,
Pages 54, 55)."17

None of the above explanations is authentically related from the Prophet -
Allah bless and greet him -, least of all the astonishing mention of "the
Feet"18 - and who are "Muhammad bin `Abdullâh" and the "other religious
scholars"?! Nor is the call for imitating what "Ibn Taymiyya said to
believe" other than a bankrupt innovation. Nor is the translation of kursî
as "Throne" wrong when called for in certain cases, as in the narration:
"On the Day of Resurrection your Prophet shall be brought and shall be
made to sit in front of Allah the Almighty, on His kursî."19 Some of the
Salaf, among them al-Hasan al-Basri, even explicitly said that the kursî
is the `arsh.20 Furthermore, it is authentically related from Ibn `Abbas
that he said: "His kursî is His knowledge (kursiyyuhu `ilmuhu),"21 and
this is the explanation preferred by the Imams of the Salaf such as Sufyan
al-Thawri, al-Bukhari, al-Tabari, al-Bayhaqi, and others.

13- Other examples of Khan-Hilali's bamboozled translations: "Then he rose
over (Istawâ) towards the heaven" (p. 643) as compared to Pickthall's
{Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke} (41:11) and Yusuf `Ali's
over-figurative "Moreover He comprehended in His design the sky, and it
had been (as) smoke"; "and then He rose over (Istawâ) the Throne (really
in a manner that suits His Majesty)" (p. 208) as compared to Pickthall's
simple {then mounted He the Throne} (7:54) and `Ali's typical "then He
established Himself on the Throne (of authority)"; "Do you feel secure
that He, Who is over the heaven (Allâh)" (p. 772) as compared to
Pickthall's literal (Have ye taken security from Him Who is in the heaven
(fî al-samâ')( (67:16-17) and `Ali's "Do ye feel secure that He Who is in
Heaven"; etc.

14- The translation of verse 2:200 states: "So when you have accomplished
your Manaasik, remember Allâh as you remember your forefathers or with a
far more rememberance" (p. 43)!; etc. Did Ibn Baz, "The Presidency of
Islamic Researches, Ifta, Call and Guidance," and the "King Fahd Complex
for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an" all think so cheaply of the Book of
Allah and so dearly of their own agenda that the basic grammar and syntax
of the translation of its meanings into the most heavily spoken language
on earth did not deserve to be double-checked by a competent English
proofreader before being printed on the best bible paper, sewn-bound, and
distributed freely at huge cost?

Ibn Baz did his best to aid and abet the main innovators of our time such
as al-Albani, on whom he bestowed the King Faysal Prize "for services
rendered to Islam" (!) the year before their respective deaths;
al-Albani's student and deputy in Kuwait, `Abd al-Rahman `Abd al-Khaliq
the author of the despicable attack on the Friends of Allah which he
titled Fada'ih al-Sufiyya ("The Disgraces of the Sufis") and which al-Buti
termed an exercise in calumny; Muqbil ibn Hadi al-Wadi`i who asked that
the Noble Grave be brought out of the Mosque and the Green Dome
destroyed, and roamed the land in Yemen with armed thugs, digging up the
graves of the dead with picks and spades; Abu Bakr al-Jaza'iri, Muhammad
Zino, `Abd al-Rahman Dimashqiyya, and their ilk...

As Sayyid Yusuf al-Rifa`i said to the Ulema of Najd: "You left none but
yourselves as those who are saved, forgetting the Prophet's - Allah bless
and greet him - saying: `If anyone says, `The people have perished,' then
he has perished the most."22

7 A thorough refutation of Ibn Baz's fatwa on Mawlid was issued by the Imam
Ahmed Raza Academy in South Africa and published on the Internet.

8 Al-Bayhaqi and others narrate from Malik al-Dar, `Umar's treasurer, that
the people suffered a drought during the successorship of `Umar, whereupon
a man came to the grave of the Prophet and
said: "O Messenger of God, ask for rain for your Community, for verily
they have but perished," after which the Prophet - Allah bless and greet
him - appeared to him in a dream and told him: "Go to `Umar and give him
my greeting, then tell him that they will be watered. Tell him: You must
be clever, you must be clever!" The man went and told `Umar. The latter
said: "O my Lord, I spare no effort except in what escapes my power!" Ibn
Kathir cites it thus from al-Bayhaqi in al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya (7:92) and
says: isnâduhu sahîh; Ibn Abi Shayba cites it in his Musannaf with a sound
chain as confirmed by Ibn Hajar who cites the hadith in the 3rd chapter of
the book of Istisqa' in Fath al-Bari (1989 ed. 2:629-630) and al-Isaba
(3:484), identifying the man who visited and saw the Prophet - Allah bless
and greet him - in his dream as the Companion Bilal ibn al-Harth. He
counts this hadith as one of the reasons for al-Bukhari's naming of the
chapter "The people's request to their leader for rain if they suffer
drought."

12 Namely, the epitle titled Ijabat al-Ghawth bi Bayan Hal al-Abdal wa
al-Ghawth that can be found in the original edition of Ibn `Abidin's
Rasa'il (2:264-284).

13 As revealed to the author by Dr. Muhammad Mustafa al-A`zami who
personally knew Hilali. Perhaps Hilali's close friend Dr. Abu al-Hasan
al-Nadwi should be credited for these translations instead of him.

14 The correct translation of the above hadith is: The Prophet - Allah
bless and greet him - said: The people were displayed in front of me and I
saw one Prophet passing by with a large group of his followers, another
Prophet passing by with only a small group of people, another Prophet
passing by with only ten (persons), another Prophet passing by with only
five (persons), and another Prophet passed by alone. And then I looked and
saw a large multitude of people (sawâd `azîm), so I asked Gibril: "Are
these people my followers?" He said: "No, but look towards the horizon." I
looked and saw a very large multitude of people. Gibril said: "Those are
your followers, and there are seventy thousand of them in front of them
who will neither have any reckoning of their accounts nor will receive any
punishment." I asked: "Why?" He said: "They used not to treat themselves
with cauterization nor amulets, nor to see auguries and omens in birds,
and they relied solely upon their Lord." On hearing this, `Ukkasha ibn
Mihsan stood up and said to the Prophet :
"Invoke Allah to make me one of them." The Prophet - Allah bless and greet
him - said: "O Allah, make him one of them." Then another man stood up and
said to the Prophet: "Invoke Allah to make me one of them." The Prophet -
Allah bless and greet him - said: `Ukkasha has preceded you with this
request."

16 Footnote #298 in The Holy Qur-an: English Translation of the Meanings
and Commentary, Revised and Edited by The Presidency of Islamic
Researches, Ifta, Call and Guidance (Madinah: King Fahd Holy Qur-an
Printing Complex, 1410 [1990]).

17 The Noble Qur'an: English Translation of the Meanings and Commentary by
Muhammad Taqi al-Din al-Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Revised and
Edited by The Presidency of Islamic Researches, Ifta, Call and Guidance
(Madinah: King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an, 1417
[1997] (p. 57 n. 1).

21 Narrated marfû` from the Prophet by Sufyan
al-Thawri with a sound chain according to Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari (1959
ed. 8:199) and al-Tabarani in al-Sunna; and mawqûf from Ibn `Abbas by
al-Tabari with three sound chains in his Tafsir (3:9-11), al-Mawardi in
his Tafsir (1:908), al-Suyuti in al-Durr al-Manthur (1:327), al-Shawkani
in Fath al-Qadir (1:245), and others. Al-Tabari chooses it as the most
correct explanation: "The external wording of the Qur'an indicates the
correctness of the report from Ibn `Abbas that it [the kursî] is His
`ilm... and the original sense of al-kursî is al-`ilm." Also narrated in
"suspended" form (mu`allaq) by al-Bukhari in his Sahih from Sa`id ibn
Jubayr (Book of Tafsir, chapter on the saying of Allah Most High: {And if
you go in fear, then (pray) standing or on horseback} (2:239). Its chains
are documented by Ibn Hajar in Taghliq al-Ta`liq (2/4:185-186) where he
shows that Sufyan al-Thawri, `Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi, and Waki` narrated
it marfû` from the Prophet , although in the
Fath he declares the mawqûf version from Ibn `Abbas more likely.